Swedish music export opportunities in Asia was the subject of a seminar held by the Swedish Trade Council in November.
Swedish and foreign speakers with experience from Asia in general and China, Japan and Korea in particular met at the seminar, ‘Doing Business
with Asia’ in an attempt to change the vague perception of Swedish music in Asia.
Many Asians know that ABBA, Roxette, Dr Alban, Ace of Base and the Hives are famous music artists. But many don’t know they are all Swedish?
Still Sweden made SEK 4.8 Billion in export revenue from music during 2001.
“Swedish rock and pop music, and their producers, form an important part of Sweden’s “experience industry” and are already quite successful in the
world. Despite this, the markets in Asian market are -with the exception of Japan – so far fairly untried territory from a Swedish perspective,” says
Mr. Per-Olof Lansing, head of Swedish Experience Industry at the Trade Council.
Domestic music still dominates in Asia but curiosity about trends and western music increases rapidly among youngsters. There are opportunities to
take a share of that market if we make concerted efforts to target that segment, believes Per-Olof Lansing.
Swedish Music Exports last five years (Millions of SEK)
Year Export volume Percentage change from previous year
1997 3,368
1998 3,476 +3 %
1999 4,321 +24 %
2000 4,554 +5 %
2001 4,809 +6 %
The numbers include revenue from export incomes through selling goods (such as cd’s, tapes, manufacturing equipment), selling services (such as mixing
in studios, producing music videos, licensing music) and through royalties.
Source: Export Music Sweden November 2002
